CNY Spirit

Two more days to Chinese New Year! I'm definitely excited! Angpows ($$), food (yummy!), card games (ehem, gambling), lion dance (loud music), good movies at TV (entertainment), lots lots more (body weight).

Celebration will be moderate for us this year, but there are still tedious preparations to be done around the house. As the Pepsi commercial says, there are 3 main things to do: Clean the house, wash your hair and stock up on Pepsi. And as usual, I sneaked away from the work and snapped these pictures.

The decors, inside and outside, are getting more extravagant. Not only us, but the whole neighbourhood seems caught up doing it this year. Mum explains that the price of CNY decors have dropped.




This boy and girl is for the main door. Mum wouldn't take them off even after CNY is over. Perhaps they're just too cute.


Inside the house, some newly bought plastic flowers look quite gorgeous.


The mandarin orange, carbonated drinks, beers, cookies, sweets and so much more. Before CNY begin, I'll have to hold myself back from eating them...



We will have a family reunion dinner on CNY Eve. But before that, we'll shower using water boiled with these leaves and other herbs. They say it's to wash away the bad luck.


I don't think I will post anything for the next few days. I will be having too much fun gaining weight. So I wish you a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year~!

I'm looking for...

Hisako Matsubara
Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Kakeng talks $$

Alas, I've got a paid web project. What I didn't like about it was they expect me to fill the site up with contents as well.

So actually this is getting paid for doing someone's course assignment. Not the most ethical thing to do, but it's hard to say "No" to a friend. And being friends, it's hard to discuss about the payment. *sigh*

Another friend asked if I'm interested to invest in Forex. Sceptical but eager to know more, I set up an appoinment with her. There is another reason other than curiosity. The current inflation rate is still higher than the interest rate despite the recent raise by Bank Negara, so any $$ in cash deposit is in reality losing its value. If I can find a relatively safe investment vehicle that would beat inflation, that's where the money ought to go. Not that I have much $$ though...

Talking about personal finance, I think the Ministry of Education really should introduce this subject into the secondary school curriculum. If something as taboo as the subject of sex (to most older Malaysians anyway) would finally be taught this year, why not personal finance? And Basic Economics should be made compulsory. Falsafah Pendidikan Negara (loosely translated as National Education Policy) stresses the importance of producing well-rounded Malaysians, but no well-rounded Malaysian will be produced if something as important and fundamental as managing one's finance is not taught at school. Teaching us to put $$ into our piggy banks is no longer sufficient. We need to know much more.

It is very apparent that we are lame in managing our $$. I've heard numerous times about high school graduates buying their first car just a few months into their job. Bad decision. Why? Because a car loses its value with time and incurs further spending in the form of petrol, insurance, highway tolls, parking fees, maintainance, etc. Not fogetting to mention that fuel cost will continue to rise as government cuts back on subsidy. The best wonder a car can do is to get us a date with the girls. Do the maths...

For anyone I managed to hype up to learn about personal finance, Millionaires are from Another Planet by Azizi Ali is a good start. I'll end here. As with most Malaysians, I don't like to talk about $$. It makes me look like a big fat bald greedy guy with reflection of $$ in his eyes.

School Bulletin

A few excerpts from the final edition of school bulletin for 2005. Click to enlarge.

The seloka.



The faces.



And a message from Miss Aileen.

Arrrrrggggghhh!!!

Damn it! Some bloody software update ruined my OS to the point Windows couldn't start! The worst part is I don't know which update did it. All the downloading and installing softwares night and day, gone... GONE. With all my personal files! I had no choice but to reformat. I had to redo everything all over again. The lesson? Don't bother updating your Windows. And DirectX 9.0c is a total idiocy.

Another sleepless night.

I will get myself a Mac. I swear I will. Bye-bye Bill Gates, Hello Steve Jobs.

Renovation & Digital Cleaning

I'm nearly done with Renovation. Only the graffiti and finishing decor left to be done. I have been very slow, I know. Blame that on interesting TV programme, Shannon and Carl.

I didn't took any "Before" pictures of my room and workspace though. No camera to be found around the house as I was to start working. Anyway, the results aren't as good as I expected. Should have went with dark gray and white instead of navy blue and light blue. I could only laugh at myself. Hahaha~! I guess I'll just make the best out of the situation with better decor...

The paint I used was Nippon 3-in-1. It's my first time using it, and I find it really good. It's glossy (in fact, it's almost like gloss paint), washable, and cover hairline cracks. I recommend it. The only setback is its hefty price-tag. The special custom-made Cosmic Navy cost me one purple and one red Agong for 5-litre. *imagine bank notes flapping their wings*

I just moved onto another mini-project of mine: reformatting and optimizing the PC. After reformatting it, I'm now painstakingly downloading newer versions of essential programs -- Firefox, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Media Player 10, AVG anti-virus, BitComet, Real Player, all sorts of plugins, etc. A nifty software I found was Free Download Manager. It helps to manage and maximise downloads from the browser.

Next on my list of mini-projects: muSION act II.

This post ends here. It's midnight and I still have a long list of softwares to install.

P/s: Purple Agong = RM 100, red Agong = RM 10.

Final days snapshots

I received a Christmas card from Guo Xin yesterday morning. Inside were a few photos from our final days at DPM, and I chose four to post here...

Guo Xin and I took this one after the graduation. What I really liked about this photo is that it pretty much describes our friendship -- lots of fun and laughters!

We had a lot of surprise birthday cakes last year, mostly planned by a few classmates and me. I'm not sure if they were surprised, but I was when they celebrated my birthday early. Thanks a lot to them!

We also celebrated the birthdays of those whom birthday falls during or after STPM.

And finally, some of the classmates I talk a lot to. From left: best buddy Jiron, cute fortune-teller Annie, brilliant William, silly Guo Xin, "I'm thinking of" Chok, party girl Fui Yee and lastly myself. (Notice the physics solutions on the board! I did No. 5. Haha!)


Ah... The days gone by... Now that I think of it, 2005 wasn't actually that bad.

2006

Dear 2006,

Your brother, 2005, was terrible. Marred with failures.

As for you, I heard you'll bring major changes to me, and that's exactly what I expect from you. You'll propel me to where I want to be, what I want to become, allow me to let go of things I should let go and let me embrace what I should keep by my side.

Send my regards to all your siblings.

Happy New Year.

Regards,
Ka Keng

P/s: I'll write to 2007 next year.